I had asked in one of the earlier discussions if Sofia had a sex thing going on on Cava. But now that the story is out there, I don't know. I don't totally agree with the idea that Sofia is just a dead body everybody humps. There seems to be something there, somehow. I get the feeling that when the shit hits the fan, if Cava is under threat, Sofia might be a wildcard, unstable or not. Maybe it's the way she's drawn, but Sofia looks more numb/mentally battered than dead inside.

Sofia's POV of the men in that panel when they are reaching for the stones looks kind of ominous. Does she see them as sex-crazed, animalistic, degenerates? The men are focused on that ass, and that ass is nice, but no one is really paying attention to the head. Might come back on everyone.

And Shaky. Shaky...

Sometimes it's the better part of valor not to ask questions. And especially don't ask questions to women about the woman in the group who might be being taken advantage of. Shaky is still too much of a thinker, and thinking about the wrong things. But focusing on Don feels like the right step. That bastard is the weak link.

Such a disappointing episode. Not in the sense that I thought it was badly written or anything, just in the sense that every character on the island has stooped a little lower than I thought they would. Don, in particular. Up to this point, he looked cold and mean, but at least sort of high-minded with it. Hard to maintain that when you're fucking a borderline catatonic.

I don't think Sofia sees the men as anything other than a means to an end. She dosnt graft, she gets fed; I wonder - about her only pastime is watching the kids play, if that's a clue to her past.

Maybe she had an abortion or lost a child and can no longer conceive. Maybe that's why her POV was - as you said - ominous. The one thing that she wants that the men who consummate with her in exchange for sustenance is a child.

In the end of days the only thing that saves her is the one thing before the crossed outbreak was her end of days, the failure to conceive. That she has disregard for her loins shows her disdain at there failure to work as a biological imperative. It is an irony now on cava it is her reason-d'être.

I wonder if Don is actually going to keep his end of the bargain. It'd be pretty easy for him to send Shaky off on the sortie and spin it as teaching him a lesson about trying to subvert the system. Or just not say anything at all and rely on Shaky not being willing to go public with the fact that he engaged in bribery.

(On a meta-level, do we really want Shaky sitting safely on the island when he could be telling us all about his 'adventures' on the sortie?)

I have to say outside of Ennis, your the only one who really gets how to do a Crossed story. And I have to say I'm enjoying that your able to craft extensional horror out of a post apocalyptic society. Mad Max shit is fun as hell, but it doesn't fit a story like this and your one of the few people in comics (or anywhere in the horror for that matter ) who capitalizes on that fact. Hell I like the fact I just love what your doing with the setting in general.

Also given that it's a Crossed comic it wouldn't surprise me if by doing everything right, Shaky finally craps out on luck or something. As soon as the sortie heads out, BAM fucking Crossed come in guns blazing because the fuckers where just waiting for dramatic irony.

^ Yeah, I'm thinking that whether or not Shakey is in the sortie, Cava will still turn out to be the worse place to be. Those armed, disciplined plusfaces on Orkney are plotting something, I'm sure ....

Really elaborately planned and considered, and very, very nasty. Unflinching. Si, you are a very good writer, sir. The character of Sofia changes everything. Now I want most of these meat-sacks to die.